Netflix Entertainment

The breastfeeding continues here in Roswell!  August and I have both gotten much better at it, and each 'meal' takes less time (about 30-40 minutes).  Let's be honest, though- it is still a time-consuming task.  I know I should be focusing solely on my handsome little man, but I have gotten into some great TV series on Netflix and Hulu over the last 13 weeks while nursing him.  If you're looking for some new television inspiration, take a look at what has me laughing, crying, and rewinding these days.

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The Good Wife started airing a few years ago, but it's just been added to HuluPlus.  Usually I can't get behind shows that center around infidelity, but this seems to portray it in an honest light (so far).  Julianna Margulies plays the titular character, Alicia Florrick, whose state attorney husband was busted with prostitutes and using government funds for his own purposes and sent to prison.  She stands by him, and also returns to the workforce by taking a job as an associate at a law firm.  The show is both a courtroom procedural, so each episode focuses on a different case, and a study into a marriage that has been truly tested in the media.  It feels like a grown-up drama.  All seasons available on HuluPlus.

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Let's remember that this is a judgment-free zone!  This CW comedy is mindless entertainment with great wardrobe choices.  Zoe Hart is a doctor leaves her NYC home to be a general practitioner in the small town of Bluebell, Alabama.  There are love triangles, truly mediocre actors, and corny plotlines involving an alligator named Burt Reynolds.  The first two seasons are on Netflix, the current one is on Hulu.

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How I Met Your Mother is my go-to show these days.  Ted Mosby is narrating the story of how he met his wife to his children, so the whole show is told through 'flashbacks' to the 2000s and 2010s.  His core group of friends are there for him throughout all of his misbegotten adventures in dating, and sometimes add to them.  There are 9 seasons, 8 of which are available on Netflix, and each one is better than the last.  Admittedly, there are a couple of long-standing plots that I could do without (Robin and Barney have never felt right to me, and Ted can be a bit 'woe is me'), but Lily and Marshall are worth watching.  I'm a sucker for anything Jason Segel (Marshall) does.  

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Yeah, this show about a fantasy football league may not seem like my cup of tea, but the humor slays me.  The League follows single man Pete, plastic surgeon Andre, married couple Jenny and Kevin, lawyer Ruxin, and deadbeat Taco through 5 seasons (four of them available on Netflix) of crude and lewd shenanigans, with a side of football.  It's on FX, so you know some of the humor may be a bit out of line, but that's the best part!

Battlestar Galactica. Or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Bill Adama.

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Last weekend, I did it.  I finished watching Battlestar Galactica, the rebooted series based on the 1980s miniseries.  It took a lot of time and got really dark, but I'm so, so glad I watched it.  I think it was the best wedding gift I could have given JP, as he's described the show as the "greatest fictional plot arc in the history of the world."  With build-up like that, you better believe I had high expectations and it didn't let me down.
As I mentioned in a previous post, BSG is about the survival of humans as they eke out a living in the most hostile of environments: space.  In this reality, humans created cylons, robots that eventually rised up against humans and started the human-cylon war.  Cylons are banished from the human planet, but return after a few decades to decimate the human population.  Less than 50,000 people are left after cylons annihilate the planet, and left to try to survive in space on the ships used for luxury living, waste compacting, mining, and military protection.  The Battlestar Galactica is one of the oldest ships in the "fleet," having been used during the human-cylon war, and was scheduled to be retired on the day of the cylon attack.  The battlestar is used as the new military base, and most of the main plot points happen on this ship.
The show is four seasons long, and it's a brilliantly thought-out plot.  Yes, it's a sci-fi show, but everything is grounded in reality; no aliens or space beings pop up.  Cylons are made by humans, so it makes sense that their stories are intertwined.  There are surprises throughout the series starting with the second episode, so I won't go into too much detail into the actual plots of the show. 

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I can tell you a bit about some of the main characters, though, who became huge topics of conversation for JP and I around the dinner table.  William Adama, captain of the Galactica, is a man who stands by his convictions; seriously, I would follow him anywhere.  Lee Adama, his strongheaded son, has followed in his father's miliary footsteps, though the two butts head frequently and he has a shaky relationship with Starbuck/Kara Thrace, another military member who is also connected to both Adamas.  The former Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, takes over the presidency in the wake of the attack, and is battling breast cancer as well.  Then there's Gaius Baltar, a genius scientist who always puts himself first and contributed to the attack in the first place.  Along with these core human characters, there's a host of others intricate to the storyline: Saul Tighe (the Executive Officer of the Galactica), Tyrol (officer on Galactica), Six (a cylon)... the list goes on.
Obviously, the biggest plotline of the show is whether humans can/will survive in space.  Throughout the seasons, bigger social issues arise: what rights, if any, do non-humans have in society?  What makes a person/thing human?  Should abortions be allowed if the very survival of humanity at stake?  Can democracy thrive in such a concentrated space?  You'll watch some episodes and just be itching for discussion afterward.  In addition, there's the whole personal relationship aspect of the show; when there are less than 50k people left in your civilization, it's difficult to maintain the same relationship with mankind.  I read articles about this show being excellent for couples to watch together, as there's a lot of political and military intrigue, along with soap opera plots with married couples and families. 

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For anyone still thinking this sounds like a huge waste of time unless you're a sci-fi nerd, I'll point out that the United flippin' Nations hosted a retrospective panel on the show upon its conclusion that discussed terrorism, human rights, and armed conflict.  This show tackles the heavy stuff in a poignant, realistic way that world leaders have respect for.  That's insane!  Consider my mind blown.
Let me just close with this: I don't regret any of the 40+ hours spent in front of the TV finishing this epic story.
So say we all.

New to me

TGFN.  Thank goodness for Netflix.
John Paul is an Apple addict, and we bought the new Apple TV right when it came out.  It's a handy little device that allows you to rent movies and TV shows, as well as stream video content from youtube and...Netflix!  We don't have cable, so this is how we catch up on our favorite shows.  Well, this and Hulu.
Each month, I pay the streaming fee and we have access to HUNDREDS of television shows and movies.  Old  (Cheers, The Dick van Dyke Show) and new (Pushing Daisies, Battlestar Galactica).  Good (The Cosby Show, Party Down) and bad (Laguna Beach, The Hills).  I love it!  Here are some of the shows I get all couch-potato for:

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The Cosby Show
I didn't grow up watching the Huxtable's family antics (it stopped airing when I was 6, so I don't know how much I could have appreciate it anyway), but really wish I had.  Clair and Cliff have a great, honest relationship, and their kids aren't super crazy; the whole show feels relate-able and familiar.  I'm about halfway through the first season, and was soooo glad when JP told me that the theme song changes each year.  I skipped ahead a bit, and love the 6th season opener best!

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Oh, this show is dangerous.  I can already picture a marathon viewing the next weekend JP goes out of town.  FNL just finished its fifth and final season, although it always had a problem keeping viewers and switched networks after the second season (from NBC to DirecTV).  Although I can understand why some people might not be super into it, the acting is superb, with characters you feel for right from the pilot episode.  Yes, the focus is on football, but it's more about the relationships between the characters, especially coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami, who I already think have one of the most realistic marriages on TV.

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Oh, I resisted Battlestar.  John Paul has tried on three separate occasions to get me into the show, and it finally stuck once I realized we could just watch it anytime on Netflix.  The sci-fi fan in me rejoices with everything about this: great character development, epic plot (Cylons basically killed all but 50,000 humans, and they are trying to eke out a democratic existence in space while they search for a new home), romance, suspense, action, political intrigue...yes, yes, it aired on Sci-Fi (SyFy?  I don't have cable these days, so don't know these newfangled network names), but don't let that stop you from checking it out. I just started the fourth season and am DYING to know how this story ends! 

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Party Down is seriously making me fall in love with Adam Scott.  He plays Henry, a guy who is well-known for some beer commercials from a few years ago and hasn't had any luck as an actor since.  His old friend, Ron, gives him a job at a party catering company, where Henry acts as a bartender.  Each episode focuses on a different event, and each of the two seasons is only 10 episodes long (so it won't take too long to get through the series).  It's a completely ridiculous show, with heaps of sarcasm, nudity, drug use, and language (Mom, I'm warning you now).  However, all of the characters are trying to break into the acting business but continue catering because...perhaps they like it.  I think the moral of this show is to not judge unconventional careers.  That's pretty deep for a 30 minute sitcom.

What have you been watching lately? 

Watch Pushing Daisies!

 

 

There aren't enough words to describe how much I love the aesthetic and storyline of this sadly cancelled TV gem.  Pushing Daisies aired from October 2007 to June 2009, for a total of 22 episodes over two seasons.  

What a cool concept for a show, though: Ned has the ability to bring things back to life with his touch.  There's a catch, though.  If the dead thing he touched stays alive for more than a minute, something else dies in its place, and, if he touches that thing again, it stays dead forever.  Kind of weird, but it's well-explained in the first episode.  He uses this ability to solve forensic crimes with a partner, Emerson Cod, a P.I.  Ned brings the dead people back to life, questions them about their deaths, and he and Emerson collect the reward money.  When he's not solving crimes, he bakes pies at his shop, The Pie Hole.

Olive Snook is in love with Ned.  Ned is in love with Chuck, the childhood sweetheart he brought back to life after her unfortunate murder.  Because he's touched her once, he can't touch her again without killing her.  Chuck loves Ned, too, but sometimes feels uncomfortable with their situation.  Lily and Vivian are Chuck's agoraphobic aunts that Ned and Olive stay in touch with.  

The look of the show is bright, mostly to juxtapose the macabre plot.  Everyone wears lots of summery colors and florals, the Pie Hole roof looks like a pie crust (see above photo), and the dialogue is quirky and fun to hear.  

I bring this up because I recently purchased both seasons of Pushing Daisies, and can't stop watching the series.  It's just such a pick-me-up during the dreary month of January in DC!  Maybe your local library has the series on DVD, or you can watch a few episodes online.  However you choose to check out the show, I highly recommend sitting through the pilot.  You'll be hooked after that.

Favorite TV Shows of 2010

Community

This show is the most irreverently funny, ridiculous show on any network.  The second season has shown a sharpening of jokes and slightly deeper character development.  Any show who has tribute episodes to both zombie movies and action film cliches is okay by me.  Oh, and Joel McHale, Alison Brie, and Donald Glover are just comedic gold.

Mad Men

You know, it's almost not even fair to compare other shows to this one.  Each season keeps getting more interesting and complex, with unparalleled character development, intriguing plot twists, and the season finales are the BEST!  Is there another man on TV as watchable as Don Draper?  This year's focus on his daughter, Joan and Roger's relationship, and the slivers of hope the advertising agency held onto were more mature and personal than previous seasons.

Bored to Death (Season One)

I bought the first season on a whim from Target (it was on sale and I'm a sucker for Jason Schwartzman), and fell in love with the opening credits.  The rest of the show is earnest, funny, and full of amazing Ted Danson scenes.  Jason Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames, a writer who's stuck on his second novel and decides to be a private detective on the side.  Ted Danson is his boss at a men's magazine, and Zach Galifianakis is his cartoon artist best friend.  Granted, 2010 was the year of season two, but I can't comment on that yet.  In the meantime, check out the credit sequence.

Modern Family

A consistently funny, sweet show that documents three families (all related) in their day-to-day lives.  It's a mockumentary, a genre that's getting a bit played out, but all of the actors, including the kids, do a stand-up job of delivering great lines each week.  My only question is where is Lily in half the episodes?  She is the world's quietest baby!

Cougar Town

Cougar Town has really blossomed in its second season.  It's kind of like Friends-lite: funny grown-ups who don't take themselves too seriously and do mundane stuff together, but make it entertaining.  I will say that Jules can be a bit grating, and overbearing to the point of meanness, but the other characters are endearing.  If they get Laurie and Travis together, though, it's going to get weird.

Parks and Recreation

I just love Amy Poehler on Parks and Recreation.  The supporting cast, including Ron Swanson and Andy, are just hysterical as the Director of Parks and Rec and shoeshine guy, respectively.  The second season ended with the county in an upheaval because of budget cuts; will the P&R department make it out with all of their people?  The third seasons starts in January, so tune in!